May 13
2004

Can't believe I didn't see this at first because I know how much Whedon loves The Wild Bunch & It's only like one of my favorite movies.
And no, I'm not dating Shadowkat (this is my second link to a post of hers) but she is on fire lately.

WOW. I totally missed the connection of all those circles. I wonder, is shadowcat taking/teaching one of those Buffy classes or does she/he just pay ALOT of attention to all those details I miss? Makes this episode WAY more significant than I even realized. Now I really have to find a copy for my friend to see. Those last 10 minutes are even more major than I realized when I was watching it.

FearsomeBrowMop & cubiclesatan - Definetly rent 'The Wild Bunch' if you get a chance. It's a not only a great movie but so influential on BTVS, Angel & (perhaps most overtly until last night) Firefly.

If you like 'The Wild Bunch', you might want to see some of Sam Peckinpah's other classic westerns such as 'Ride the High Country' & 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid', which is one of the most savagely beautiful films ever made as well as deeply moving eulogy for the death of 60's idealism.

Simon and Cubiclesatan - you're right, it's highly amusing - not to mention ironic - that, when you look back on Season 5 in hindsight, nearly all of the apparently "stand-alone" episodes have some bearing or input into the overall plot arc (even, apparently, those robots). The way in which these layers seemed to innocuous at the time only further points to ME's subtlety.

I'm surprised no one pointed out all the references to them in "Underneath" -- the idea of the surface reality not being what it appears, both in terms of the "holding dimension" and Wolfram & Hart:

* Wesley's strange joke about falling through the earth, and his "dream" about Fred, saying, "This is only the first layer. Don't you wanna see how deep I go?"

* Eve, in answer to her purpose: "There are layers upon layers at Wolfram and Hart, Angel. Things you'll never understand."

* Most pointedly, Lindsey (and later Gunn) teaching the boy, Zach, about the layers of the Earth:Lindsey: "Okay, from the top, the earth's outer layer is called?"
"The crust."
Lindsey: "And what's underneath that?"
"The mantle."
Lindsey: "And under that? C'mon, you know this one."
"The outer core?"
Lindsey: "And under that?"
"The inner core."
Lindsey: "And under that?"
"Under that .... nothing?"
Lindsey: "Nothing but the soft chewy center."

* And finally, when Lindsey tells him about the apocalypse around them, Angel comes to understand: "You're saying, everything we do, it's a distraction to keep us busy, from looking under the surface."